Top 10 Astronomy Photos of 2017

Selecting the Top 10 Astronomy Images of 2017 was a tough choice, but The Cosmic Companion is here to help guide you through some of the most amazing images yet seen of the Universe, adding to the wealth of scientific knowledge gained in 2017.

These photographs of our Solar System, nebulae, and galaxies were produced by NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the European Space Agency, researchers and support staff at Hubble, and many other great organizations.

Enjoy these ten magnificent photographs, presented in no special order.

The Great American Solar Eclipse took place in 2017 and this is what it looked like from space. Check out the shadow of the Moon covering the entire Pacific Northwest of the United States!

Credit: CIRA/Flickr

A collision between two galaxies is seen here in a merger known as NGC 2623. When the Andromeda Galaxy collides with our own Milky Way in roughly four billion years, our two galaxies will look much like this system, 250 million light years away.

Image: ESA/Hubble/NASA

The gas clouds of Jupiter, pictured in shades of blue, as seen by the Juno spacecraft on October 24, 2017.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/ Seán Doran

The northern ice cap of Mars, where frozen carbon dioxide freeze over water ice each winter, as winds blow the frozen material into a stunning spiral shape.

Image: NASA / ESA/DLR/FU Berlin; NASA MGS MOLA Science Team

Solar filaments, streams of charged particles, are commonly seen floating above the surface of the Sun in filaments. Only rarely are they seen shaped like circles like the sysytem seen here, which formed in October 2017.

JPL / NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Tarantula and Honeycomb Nebulae as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Image: NASA/ESA/HSST

The rings of Saturn as seen by the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn could float on water if you could only find an ocean large enough to hold it!

Image: Flickr / NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Kevin M. Gill

Faults on the surface of Mars as seen (in false color) by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in December 2017.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer tweeted this photo from the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2017.

Image: NASA

This massive storm in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter spins counter-clockwise as it races through the atmosphere of the largest planet in the solar system.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

As 2018 unfolds, we are certain to see many new amazing photos taken of the Cosmos around us.